Pole to Pole

Day 49: Rhodes to Limassol

Everything about the Silver Paloma is depressing. Breakfast is the first meal I've turned down on the whole journey. The smell of stale cigarette smoke hangs around the passageways and clings to the walls. The decks are empty but the slot machines are busy. Families bicker and argue. There seems little joy in it all.

Arrival at Limassol is protracted. We sit in one of the ship's reception areas, which is fitted out in a barren blend of vinyl, chrome and plastic, and wait over an hour for the disembarking queue to clear. This is followed by another half-hour's wait on the quayside in airless, muggy heat until we are allowed to begin unloading our equipment.

Times such as these are the low points of the journey. None of us is much refreshed after a night on the boat, and after thirty-two days of filming in the last five weeks and four national frontiers crossed in the last seven days alone we are all expending energy much faster than we can replace it.

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PALIN'S GUIDES

Series: Pole to Pole
Day: 49
Country/sea: Cyprus
Place: Limassol
Book page no: 108

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